Jurnal 3

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal
Accounting and the post-new public management: Re-considering publicness in

accounting research
Ileana Steccolini,
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Ileana Steccolini, (2018) "Accounting and the post-new public management: Re-considering
publicness in accounting research", Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, https://
doi.org/10.1108/AAAJ-03-2018-3423
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Accounting
Accounting and the post-new and the post-
public management new public
management
Re-considering publicness in
accounting research
Ileana Steccolini
Newcastle University London, London, England
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to reflect various pathways for public sector accounting and
accountability research in a post-new public management (NPM) context.
Design/methodology/approach – The paper first discusses the relationship between NPM and public
sector accounting research. It then explores the possible stimuli that inter-disciplinary accounting scholars
may derive from recent public administration studies, public policy and societal trends, highlighting possible
ways to extend public sector accounting research and strengthen dialogue with other disciplines.
Findings – NPM may have represented a golden age, but also a “golden cage,” for the development of public
sector accounting research. The paper reflects possible ways out of this golden cage, discussing future
avenues for public sector accounting research. In doing so, it highlights the opportunities offered by
re-considering the “public” side of accounting research and shifting the attention from the public sector, seen
as a context for public sector accounting research, to publicness, as a concept central to such research.
Originality/value – The paper calls for stronger engagement with contemporary developments in
public administration and policy. This could be achieved by looking at how public sector accounting accounts
for, but also impacts on, issues of wider societal relevance, such as co-production and hybridization of
public services, austerity, crises and wicked problems, the creation and maintenance of public value and
democratic participation.
Keywords Austerity, Public sector accounting, Wicked problems, New public management, Public value,
Publicness
Paper type Conceptual paper
1. Introduction
Public sector accounting scholarship has witnessed enormous developments over the last
three decades (e.g. Lapsley, 1988; Broadbent and Guthrie, 1992, 2008). However, far from
having reached maturity, it has been recently the subject of a lively debate concerning its
future. Especially in the light of it being seen as too insulated from other disciplines, with
limited impact on public policy (Humphrey and Miller, 2012), and in need of stronger
theorization (e.g. Jacobs, 2012, 2013, 2016; Broadbent and Guthrie, 1992, 2008; Goddard,
2010; Van Helden et al., 2008; Anessi-Pessina et al., 2016).
This paper aims at contributing to this contemporary debate by reflecting various
pathways for public sector accounting and accountability practices and research.
Discussing the influence of new public management (NPM) in recent public sector
accounting research, the paper suggests that NPM may represent a golden age for public
sector accounting scholarship, but may end up becoming its “golden cage” (Section 2).
In reviewing ways out of the “golden cage,” and various forward pathways for public sector
accounting research (Section 3), this paper explores inter-disciplinarity of public sector
accounting as its strength, and propose to rediscover the “public” side of accounting
scholarship. This would require shifting the attention from the public sector, seen as a
context for public sector accounting research, to “publicness,” as a concept central to such
research (Section 4), and stronger engagement with contemporary developments in public Accounting, Auditing &
Accountability Journal
administration, public policy and societal issues. Along these lines, public sector accounting © Emerald Publishing Limited
0951-3574
scholars may explore if and how accounting accounts for, but also impacts on, issues of DOI 10.1108/AAAJ-03-2018-3423
AAAJ wider social relevance, such as the creation and maintenance of public value, co-production
and hybridization of public services, austerity, crises and wicked problems, and
performance management. This may contribute to strengthening our understanding of
the role of accounting in modern states, but also our impact on public policies and society
(Section 5).
2. NPM as a golden (c)age for public sector accounting?

The rise and development of public sector budgeting and accounting are intertwined with
the establishment of modern states ( Jones and Pendlebury, 2010, pp. 1-13). Public budgets
and the related reports were first set up to ensure accountability on the allocation and use of
public resources (Saliterer et al., 2017). The specific nature of the public sector has influenced
the features of public sector accounting. As a research area, public sector accounting
matured at the intersection among different disciplines, including public administration and
management, financial and management accounting, political science, sociology,
psychology, public finance, organization studies and legal studies (see Jones and
Pendlebury, 2010, pp. 1-13; Anessi-Pessina et al., 2016). In practice, it has traditionally been a
field where different actors, including politicians, managers, accountants, economists,
advisors, policymakers, have co-existed and interacted, along with their differences in
cultures, perceptions, expectations and professional norms ( Jones, 2000; Jones and
Pendlebury, 2010, pp. 1-13).
In his review of inter-disciplinary public sector accounting scholarship, Lapsley (1988,
p. 21) observed the absence of systematic investigation in most public sector accounting
issues and highlighted the distinctive features that would make public sector accounting
attractive to accounting scholars. These included the heterogeneity of public sector
organizations, the scale of their operations, and the diversity of their accounting practices.
Indeed, this seminal piece was followed by a blossoming of studies into public sector
accounting in the subsequent three decades. Extant reviews of public sector accounting
research include Broadbent and Guthrie (1992, 2008), Goddard (2010), Modell (2009, 2013),
Van Helden et al. (2008), Jacobs (2012, 2013), and Anessi-Pessina et al. (2016). These reviews
highlight that since the 1980s public sector accounting became the technical language
necessary to support the cultural shift to a quantifiable, managerial, marketized public sector,
responding to the need of translating NPM ideologies and neo-liberalism into concrete tools
and systems (Humphrey et al., 1993; Lapsley, 1999, 2009; Humphrey and Miller, 2012; Liguori
and Steccolini, 2014). As such, accounting, auditing, accountability, performance
measurement became increasingly central in public sector reforms and rhetoric, providing
their “technical lifeblood,” New Public Financial Management (Olson et al., 1998).
While accounting has been described as fundamental in the implementation of the
NPM program, in turn, NPM appears to have grown increasingly central in the study of
public sector accounting (e.g. Van Helden, 2005; Van Helden et al., 2008; Anessi-Pessina
et al., 2016). Indeed, public sector (reforms) and NPM were increasingly seen as ideal
settings where scholars could explore the power of accounting to lead change (or how
accounting change can be resisted), and the role of contexts in influencing accounting
(Broadbent and Guthrie, 1992, 2008).
The above reviews also seem to suggest that the advent of NPM reforms may have
coincided with a golden age for the development of public sector accounting research[1]. For
example, the papers reviewed by Lapsley (1988) in 1988 from 1980 onwards, which are
mostly focused on a technical view of accounting (as suggested by Broadbent and Guthrie,
1992, p. 11) are about 50. In 1992, Broadbent and Guthrie’s review considered about 90
papers, claiming they were only focusing on the most recent inter-disciplinary (“alternative”)
public sector accounting research in the Australian and British context (most of the papers
reviewed were published between the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s). In 2008, the
same authors, keeping the focus on inter-disciplinary public sector accounting, and Accounting
reviewing literature from 1992 to 2006, found 452 relevant papers. Similarly, in their review and the post-
of 87 European public sector accounting papers on budgeting between 1980 and 2014, new public
Anessi-Pessina et al. (2016) show that public sector accounting papers on public budgeting
have significantly increased since the 1980s (see also Figure 1). They also show that a wide management
majority of such papers refer to NPM at least as the context of their research.
In the light of the above, NPM appears to have represented a unique opportunity for
accumulating technical and contextual knowledge of accounting at work in the public realm.
Of course, it is not possible to test for any causal relationship between the presence of NPM
reforms and the growth of public sector accounting, and there is no evidence that public sector
accounting research may have developed differently in the absence of NPM reforms. However,
NPM appeared to have stimulated a strong debate among academics and practitioners about
public sector accounting and accountability and fostered a strong critique of one-size-fits-all
applications of managerial and accounting techniques in the public sector (Broadbent and
Guthrie, 2008; Caperchione et al., 2013; Anessi-Pessina et al., 2016).
This rising interest in NPM may have easily translated in a sort of scholarly fascination,
maybe encouraged by self-reinforcing mechanisms, including conformance to editors’,
reviewers’ and, more generally, peers’ expectations. As such, quoting and referring to NPM
was probably seen as a way to participate in lively international debate, to signal a sense of
belonging to a scholarly community, as well as an engagement with public sector change.
Indeed, while Hood (1991) introduced NPM in the public administration literature (see e.g.
Pollitt, 2016), Hood (1995) was central in introducing the concept into the accounting
literature and in signaling the relevance of accounting within NPM, and of NPM for public
sector accounting.
NPM appeared to be central in the studies referring to accounting reforms and changes
in Anglo-Saxon countries, where managerial and market-oriented reforms had originated
and NPM principles and ideas have imbued public services (i.e. Barzelay, 2001; Lapsley,
2009; Hyndman et al., 2014; Pollitt, 2016; Hyndman and Lapsley, 2016).
In such contexts, NPM has developed as an umbrella concept, taken increasingly for
granted, expected to continue to produce long-lasting impacts both when its supposedly
positive effects have been described, and when its shortcomings, unexpected and unwanted
effects have been pointed out (e.g. Modell, 2009; Arnaboldi et al., 2015; Broadbent and
Laughlin, 1998; Hood and Dixon, 2015, 2016).
35
NPM-related papers Not NPM-related papers
30
29%
25
20 14%
15 18%
71%
10 86%
60%
82%
5 Figure 1.
40% Percentage of NPM-
0 related papers on
1980 –1989 1990 –1999 2000 – 2009 2010 – 2012 public budgeting,
by decade
Source: Anessi-Pessina et al. (2016, p. 495)
AAAJ However, if Anglo-Saxon scholars appeared to be profoundly interested in the presence of
NPM (even when resisted or problematic), their non-Anglo-Saxon counterparts were in the
position to describe the absence or somewhat limited implementation of NPM. Several
continental European countries and developing countries have been described either as
late- or mild-adopters of NPM (Hood, 1998; Olson et al., 1998), laggards (Barzelay, 2001) or as
neo-Weberian states, where NPM has not wiped off the existing traditional administrative
culture, and its influence has been more limited and/or strongly intertwined with the extant
Weberian administrative tradition (Pollitt and Bouckaert, 2011; Bouckaert, 2006; Kuhlmann,
2010; Liguori et al., 2017). These experiences highlight that a cultural shift towards “full”
marketization has not always taken place, and thus that NPM cannot and should not always
be taken for granted. NPM may have appealed to many legislators and reformers, impacting
on the reforms undergone by public services over the last three decades. In the academic
arena, scholars using the NPM framework, wording and references to describe the reforms
which took place in several non-Anglo-Saxon countries may have tended to classify them in
ways that could be understandable by other international scholars, identifying those
aspects that could be more easily recognized as NPM-like. This contributed to construct and
confirm the idea that NPM was an international phenomenon, though with local variations
(e.g. Hyndman et al., 2014; Liguori et al., 2017), and fostered a debate about why NPM-type
reforms did not work, even in contexts different from Anglo-Saxon countries (Barzelay,
2001; Pollitt and Bouckaert, 2011; Liguori et al., 2017).
The above phenomena have contributed to reinforce the role of NPM in inter-disciplinary
public sector accounting research, resulting in numerous papers referring to NPM (for
reviews, see Van Helden et al., 2008; Broadbent and Guthrie, 1992, 2008; Jacobs, 2013;
Goddard, 2010; Jacobs, 2012; Anessi-Pessina et al., 2016). In addition to papers looking at
NPM as the context of their research, several papers adopted NPM as the conceptual lens to
explore accounting practices and reforms, with limited or no reference to other theoretical
bases. The relevant numbers of studies, developed in an NPM context, which either do not
draw on a clear theory, or refer to NPM as the theoretical framework of reference, has been
for example pointed out by Anessi-Pessina et al. (2016) in their public budgeting review, and
by Van Helden (2005) in his review about public sector management control literature.
If the focus on NPM reforms as the context for research has provided rich opportunities for
investigation for public sector accounting scholars, the use of NPM ideas as a conceptual lens
for such research may have monopolized scholarly attention. This may have downplayed the
use of other theories for (public sector) accounting scholarship (on this, see also Jacobs, 2012,
2016; Anessi-Pessina et al., 2016) or more generally made it less necessary to develop stronger
forms of theorization[2]. Moreover, the focus on NPM may have fostered the establishment
and consolidation of networks, conferences and journals, which are in principle signs of
richness and strength, but may also potentially create an insulated field or even a niche, at the
risk of scant communication with other disciplines (Humphrey and Miller, 2012).
In the light of these considerations, I suggest that NPM reforms may have been a golden
age for the development of public sector accounting and the related research (though they
may not have necessarily been the only cause of the flourishing of research around public
sector accounting at a specific historical juncture). However, the focus on NPM both as a
context for research and as a conceptual lens underlying it may risk becoming a golden cage
for such research, fostering under-theorization (as discussed above), insulation as well as a
focus on critique of the negative effects of public sector accounting.
This condition of insulation can be illustrated looking, for example, at the relationship of
public sector accounting with two of the disciplines that may have overlaps with it (i.e.
accounting and public administration).
In accounting mainstream journals, there is a dearth of public sector accounting research.
Only a few accounting journals which are not specifically focused on the public sector, publish
public sector accounting papers (including, for example, Accounting Organizations and Accounting
Society, Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal, Critical Perspectives on Accounting, and the post-
Management Accounting Research, the Journal of Qualitative Research in Accounting and new public
Management). This suggests public sector accounting scholars have their outlets for
publications (e.g. Financial Accountability and Management, Public Money and Management, management
or the Journal of Public Budgeting, Accounting and Financial Management).
In public administration, public sector accounting is often seen as a bundle of techniques,
left to specialists. Nevertheless, several studies have focused on public sector accountability
and transparency (e.g. Bovens et al., 2014; Brandsma and Schillemans, 2013; Schillemans,
2015a, b; Schillemans and Smulders, 2015; Johnston and Romzek, 1999; Romzek and
Johnston, 2005; Meijer et al., 2018), or performance measurement and management
(e.g. Moynihan and Pandey, 2010; Moynihan et al., 2012a, b; for a review, see Kroll, 2015).
These studies virtually ignore the accounting literature and theories (e.g. for evidence on
performance measurement studies, see also Van Helden et al., 2008). These adopt a
functionalist view of accounting as an unproblematic “black box,” a useful tool for
incentivizing, motivating personnel, improving decision making and reducing information

asymmetries, or as a taken for the granted element of a vague and comprehensive
“administrative capacity.”
The strong focus on NPM reforms may have also contributed to another feature of
inter-disciplinary public sector accounting scholarship (i.e. its emphasis on a critique of
public sector accounting reforms). Studies on accounting under NPM are often negatively
connoted, with an emphasis on accounting seen as a “negative” force (on this, see also
Cuganesan et al., 2014). A large body of studies in this area shows how accounting can be
used to control, constrain, blame, shrink public services (e.g. Newberry and Pallot, 2004;
Broadbent, 2013), replace traditional political and professional ethos with a quantification
culture (Broadbent et al., 1996, 2001; Broadbent and Laughlin, 1998; Power, 1997, 2000, 2003;
Miller, 2001; Kurunmaki et al., 2003; Lapsley, 2009; De Lancer Julnes and Steccolini, 2015)
and neo-liberal principles (Ellwood and Newberry, 2007).
They also highlight how this may cause increased stress, fear, unhappiness, sense of
inadequacy (Lapsley, 2009; Power, 1997), crowd-out motivation and service-related activities
(Olson et al., 2001; Hood and Peters, 2004), while not necessarily improving public services or
citizens’ well-being or democratic accountability (e.g. Pallot, 2003; Ezzamel et al., 2004).
These studies reflect the problematic and possibly failing nature of NPM, and the
commitment of scholars to highlight critical issues in reform implementation to improving
public services. The resulting portrait of public sector accounting (mostly in an NPM
context) is a predominantly bleak one and may question the contribution of accounting to
public service improvement and more generally to the pursuit of public interest. However,
there is no evidence to prove whether the problems with public sector accounting
highlighted in the existing literature are related more generally to its nature and features, or
to the type of public sector accounting systems and practices that have been promoted
under NPM. Despite such literature about the failures and unexpected effects of public
sector accounting reforms, it appears that the related warnings and caveats have not been
listened to by policymakers and practitioners, and similar reforms are still being introduced,
producing similarly unwanted results[3].
3. Out of the golden (c)age? A proposal

The “failures” of NPM in Anglo-Saxon countries have, over time, fed an animated debate on
whether NPM is still alive, or dead, or if different paradigms are emerging. Several authors
have suggested that, despite its unexpected and unwanted effects (Hood and Peters, 2004;
Lapsley, 1999, 2008, 2009; Hood and Dixon, 2015, 2016), NPM impacts will continue to be
influential in our lives (Lapsley, 2009; Hyndman et al., 2014; Hyndman and Lapsley, 2016).
AAAJ As discussed above, others have highlighted local variations in NPM adoption and
implementation (Hammerschmid and Meyer, 2005). Other scholars have suggested new
“paradigms” to supersede NPM (e.g. see Pollitt, 2016). Another group of authors suggest
that we are experiencing a “paradigmatic gap,” whereby NPM is no longer the dominant
paradigm in public service provision, but new paradigms are yet to come (e.g. Coen and
Roberts, 2012; Bryson et al., 2014). This paper recognizes that NPM has been and will remain
influential especially in the Anglo-Saxon countries and will argue that accounting
scholarship must be emancipated from it.
In a post-NPM world, public sector accounting scholarship may remain orphaned
because of so much attention to NPM. However, this historical juncture represents an
important opportunity for scholars, who may feel encouraged to explore new aspects,
features and roles of accounting so to learn more general lessons on it, and develop more
general contributions to accounting (and public policy and administration) studies by
adopting an inter-disciplinary stance and by looking not only at the constraints caused
by accounting, but also at the possibilities it offers. This juncture may provide an
opportunity for public sector accounting scholars to find their way out of the golden cage.
However, even if we admit that NPM is still alive, as suggested by Hyndman and Lapsley
(2016) and Pollitt (2016), or, paradoxically, especially if we recognize that NPM is still with
us, it may be time to re-visit the embrace of NPM and public sector accounting to bring the
latter to maturity.
Two possible “ways out” of the NPM golden cage[4] can be identified, as two extremes of
a possible continuum. The first is to virtually “ignore” NPM, looking at how general features
of public services, the public sector, public servants and managers affect accounting, and
how, in turn, public sector accounting systems impacts on society. This requires an exercise
of abstraction, while at the same time looking at practices, and learning from accounting in
action (see Scapens, 1994) and may allow stronger generalization and the adoption of a
longer-term view. The second is to explore new paradigms, which may replace NPM or are
currently practised in non-Anglo-Saxon countries as the focus and context of our research.
This may produce immediate short-term returns and impacts regarding engagement with
policy and participating in the debates around practice. Indeed, if we wish not only to gain a
better understanding of current phenomena, but also provide conceptual lenses for
understanding possible future events, we need research that is at the same time “contextual”
(Laughlin, 1999) but also has the ambition to be generalizable (Parker and Northcott, 2016).
Scholars who wish to contribute to changing and improving current practices and
policies may need to ensure that the exploration of the past and the present offers insights
and indications for the future. This would require recognizing that NPM, public governance,
austerity and more generally the public sector are the settings of our research, and
understand the more general lessons that we can learn by observing accounting “at work” in
such contexts. Along these lines, in the next section, I propose that reflecting on the
“publicness” in our research as a “concept” may provide us with references to strengthen
theorization and the reach of our research.
4. Publicness as a concept
The focus on the public sector has often been seen as a possible limit to the generalizability
of accounting research and potential interest from “outsiders.” Similarly, the focus on
accounting has often been considered a limit for being understood and producing an impact
on the public administration community, as accounting has often been seen as too
“technical” or as a mere facet of overall administrative capacity. Despite this, some of the
most powerful and insightful administrative, organizational and managerial theories
have been developed, tested, or refined in the public sector (including, e.g., the Weberian
concept of bureaucracy, Weber, 1922, or institutional theories, Meyer and Rowan, 1977).
Moreover, in several countries (e.g. continental European countries, such as Germany, Italy), Accounting
administrative sciences and (public) management found their roots or inspiration in and the post-
accounting scholarship, whereby “management” studies and practices started to emerge new public
from accounting as organizations increasingly needed administrative, organizational and
strategic structures, systems and processes and tools to be put in place, in addition to management
accounting tools (Anessi Pessina, 2002; Zoller, 2008). Finally, a body of research has
provided evidence and highlighted the importance of both the organizational and the
societal impacts of accounting (Miller and Power, 2013; Vosselman, 2014; Modell, 2014).
Such impacts may be especially relevant in the public realm, whereby accounting is strongly
implicated in organizational change processes, the management and governance of public
sector entities and public services. Similarly, they may be important in the implementation
of public policies, which are aimed at producing outreaching and lasting impacts on society
and the economy.
Therefore, accounting scholars should engage more and participate in wider debates
concerning public administration, policy and management[5]. However, this will require
being ready and willing to speak a language that can be understood by public
administration colleagues, as well as politicians, public managers and policymakers.
Accounting scholars will only be able to reach out to wider audiences by illustrating the
implications of accounting and accountability choices and practices for citizens, public
managers, politicians, policymakers and thus for the delivery of public services, the quality
of democracy, political and managerial decision-making processes.
A simplified assumption appears to be often made that only the private sector context is
central to management, organization and accounting studies. Only studies referred to the
private realm are considered as being “general,” while public sector accounting or
management are seen as specialized niches. However, in most western countries, the
proportion of GDP managed through public budgets and public services can reach around
50 percent. Moreover, and importantly, it is too simplistic to conceive of “private” and “public”
as dichotomous categories, as they are rather continuous dimensions (Bozeman, 1987, 2013).
Also, this distinction is becoming increasingly blurred and outdated as new ways of
organizing economic activities, deciding on public interests and values, and delivering public
services emerge and diffuse. Thus, we should consider “publicness” as a central concept for
understanding how our accounting studies can offer wider and longer-term impacts.
The literature on “publicness” emerged following Bozeman’s (1987) view that all
organizations are public “to a certain extent” and much can be understood about
organizations (and public policies) by knowing their particular mix of public/political and
economic/market-based authority and resources. Further elaborations on the idea of
publicness refer to such factors as ownership, funding and control (Boyne, 2002), ethical
issues (Berman et al., 1994) and decision processes (Nutt and Backoff, 1993).
However, in many accounting studies, “publicness” has narrowly been referred to the
setting where the analysis was conducted, with an emphasis on NPM as both the context of
the analysis and the conceptual framework. While the public sector can represent a context
of research, publicness can represent a concept around which to develop such research.
As suggested by Lapsley (1988), public contexts may provide several relevant and
interesting, but also diverse, features. These may include lower or higher presence and
coexistence of multiple rationalities and logic (including professional, managerial and
political), the ambiguity of goals, multifaceted performance, heterogeneity of stakeholders
and expectations, political agendas and power games, the presence of reforms and complex
change processes. The public sector context may also represent an ideal arena where to
observe how behaviors are influenced by motives that are not captured by the traditional
neo-classical economic view, principal-agent or transaction-cost models. Conversely,
pro-social, altruistic behaviors (Grant, 2013), and collaborative and co-operative
AAAJ efforts (Klijn and Koppenjan, 2016) find significant diffusion, influencing, among others,
conceptions of accountability and performance. Finally, public service entities have been
shown to remain the residual claimants when “things go wrong,” being increasingly
required to face complex, long-term, non-routine and “wicked” problems ( Jacobs and
Cuganesan, 2014).
This suggests that describing all these conditions by referring generically to a “public
sector” context can limit our possibilities as researchers. Indeed, Broadbent and Guthrie
(2008) observed that, as a consequence of the increasing reliance on private networks to
provide public services, it was no longer possible to refer to “public sector,” but it became
necessary to refer to “public services.” It may now be time for a further step, abandoning a
view of a public sector as a setting and space and recognize that the public interest is
attained in an increasingly abstract arena. Thus, publicness has increasingly come to refer
more to the attainment of public goals and interests, than to the organizations and concrete
spaces where the related activities take place.
Accounting scholars, thus, need to look at how accounting can respond to the challenges
posed by shifting and increasingly “diffused” publicness.

As public interest and public value are decided upon, planned and accounted more out of
a specific tangible space, and in an abstract public space, accounting can still provide the
processes and operational ways in which this happens, and through which general values
and ideas are translated into day-by-day decisions and actions (Miller and Rose, 1990, 2008).
Publicness can, thus, be seen as an umbrella concept and can be qualified by looking at
different relevant features, and the different degrees and extents to which such features
manifest themselves in the public arena. This may be useful at least for three reasons. First,
this may give meaning to “public sector and services,” differentiating and specifying which
“type(s)” of publicness we are looking at and at its implications for accounting scholarship.
Second, relying on publicness as a multifaceted concept may allow us to take stock of the
richness of extant fragmented “contextual” studies, by defining the boundaries and, thus,
specifying under which conditions certain aspects are to be observed, and which are the
features that impact on and are impacted upon by accounting. Third, this may also allow us
to respond to previous calls for more engagement with policy and public administration
literature, strengthening and widening our impact and inter-disciplinarity. Fourth, adopting
publicness as a frame may facilitate comparative studies that do not privilege jurisdictional
differences as the dominant characteristic[6].
As observed before, reflecting more on what makes our research unique represents a
way out of NPM. At the same time, this is not a call for making our studies more abstract,
but rather casting them in a wider perspective, aware that each study can be a piece in the
wider jigsaw of public sector accounting literature.
There are several developments in public administration that can represent useful
stimuli for accounting scholars, inviting us to explore the role of accounting in modern
democracies (and post-democracies). If we wish to engage with other disciplines, we will
need to think more about the general lessons that can be learned by looking at these
specific phenomena. This may also mean being ready to engage with other academic
communities, speaking their language, attending their conferences, and reading and
publishing more in public administration, political science, as well as generalist
accounting journals. The next sub-sections present several contemporary developments in
the public administration literature, discussing how accounting scholars are currently
tackling them and possible further implications and stimuli for accounting scholarship, as
well as emerging research questions. These developments, which are far from exhaustive
and, thus, should be seen as illustrative examples, include public value, co-production,
hybridity and multiplicity of logics, austerity, crises and wicked problems, and
performance measurement and management.
4.1 Accounting and public value Accounting
Public value and values have increasingly attracted public administration scholars’ and the post-
attention (see Nabatchi, 2017). Seen as a response to the neo-liberalist agenda, public value new public
and values literature has developed around two main streams. The first, championed by
Bozeman (2002, 2007), focuses on the policy and societal levels and refers to “public values” management
as the “inter-subjectively held principles” which define a society’s normative consensus
about the rights and prerogatives, as well as the obligations of citizens, and the principles
for policy formulation (Bozeman, 2007, p. 17). The second (Moore, 1995, 2013, 2014), focused
on the organizational level, with an emphasis on the roles of public managers, and defines
“public value” as what is either valued by the public or is good for the public and must then
be reflected in government performance.
Public value has been interpreted either as a new paradigm alternative to NPM, a rhetoric, a
narrative or a possible way of conceptualizing public performance (Alford and O’Flynn, 2009).
The public value literature provides an alternative to the dominant neo-liberalist paradigm, by
blending aspirations for the common good and focus on government performance (Dahl and
Soss, 2014), emphasizing collective action and public engagement, shared values, inclusive
dialogue and deliberation, the role of citizens as co-creators of public value and public
managers as “guardians” of the common good and public ethos.
Public value scholars have claimed that these foci should help tackle a possible
democratic deficit, caused by stronger representation for elite groups and powerful private
interests. However, critics argue that their democratization agenda may have fallen short of
expectations due to their scant consideration of issues of power, politics, conflict and
inequality, to the excessive trust in public managers (Dahl and Soss, 2014; Bryson et al.,
2014; Jacobs, 2014; Rhodes and Wanna, 2007, 2008). It is also suggested that this may also
depend on the limited practical applicability of the public value framework (Williams and
Shearer, 2011).
What is surprising is the lack of participation by accounting scholars in this ongoing
discussion (for exceptions, see Guthrie et al., 2014; Papi et al., 2018). In a review of
contributions referring to public value(s) since 1969–2012, Van der Wal et al. (2015) find
397 papers from several disciplines, including, among others, public administration, law,
environmental sciences, education, economics, political science, public health, and even
mathematics and sociology. No paper from accounting journals was found in their review.
This is surprising but also contributes to explain the difficulties that the public value
movement has faced in making the public value concept more operational. Moore has given
particular consideration to developing public value scorecards and public value accounts
(Moore, 2013). This appears to call directly into question accounting scholarship. For
example, Moore (2014, p. 475) highlights the importance of developing a “public value
accounting,” recognizing the inherent difficulties in doing so, as it is “more contingent and
particular than might seem ideal” and thus “one can reasonably hope that, over time,
different politics and different governments facing similar issues might gradually converge
on a useful way to account for public value creation.” He then suggests that “[o]nce those
accounting schemes converge, and we begin to accumulate evidence within them, the
society will know better not only what it values but also what it can actually succeed in
producing. In effect, society will become not only more reflective about its values and its
goals, but also much more knowledgeable about what is possible to do. In this way,
improving the philosophy and practice of public value accounting provides a step forward
toward enhanced government accountability, improved collective decision making, and
continuous learning about what is valuable and possible to do through government action.”
What stimuli can be derived from a public value perspective? A focus on the public value
side of accounting could contribute to emphasize its political, processual and dynamic
aspects in reminding us of the role of participatory and political processes of deliberation for
AAAJ deciding on what is considered valuable by a community. Accounting can be seen as a
dynamic device to be deployed in democratic processes, political decisions, participation
and involvement.
While not specifically referred to public value, Broadbent and Laughlin, drawing on
Habermas’ communicative action theory, highlight the role of socializing forms of
accountability as opposed to principal-agent, economic-inspired ones (Broadbent et al.,
1996). Broadbent and Laughlin (2009, 2013) point to a continuum in the forms of
performance management and control, ranging from the more traditional transactional ones,
inspired by instrumental rationality, to “relational” forms, drawing on communicative
rationalities. Also, contributions on how accounting and accountability can promote
pluralism and democratic principles, recognizing differentials in power, interests of different
constituencies can potentially contribute to a better understanding of public value. An
example in this respect is provided by the Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal
special issue edited by Brown, Dillard and Hopper (see Brown et al., 2015; Gallhofer et al.,
2015). Among other contributions, an insightful reflection on the role of the emancipatory
potential of accountability and budgetary participation is offered by Célérier and

Cuenca Botey (2015), whereby participatory budgeting in Porto Alegre is revisited from a
Bourdieusian perspective. The contributions above are not necessarily exhaustive, but
provide illustrations on how accounting scholarship may offer relevant insights and
conceptualization around public value(s).
A public value perspective highlights the importance of users of accounting and if why
and how they use accounting information. In the wake of the NPM movement, there has
been some attention in the accounting literature toward the relevance of different types of
information, especially from a managerial perspective (e.g. financial, non-financial,
budgetary, accruals; for reviews, see Liguori et al., 2012). A Public Money and Management
special issue (see Van Helden et al., 2016) and other contributions have focused on
politicians’ use of accounting information (for reviews, see Giacomini et al., 2016;
Van Helden, 2016), highlighting how more reflection is needed to capture the political use of
accounting and the processes that surround it. More generally, more investigation is needed
on the processes through which information is used, and on the roles of users in such
processes, the politics of accounting and how this contributes to representation.
Possible questions that inter-disciplinary accounting scholars may address to enter the
debate on public value may be formulated as follows. Who are the actual users of
accounting information? Are they specialized and distant elites? Central states?
Supranational institutions? Statistical offices? Media? Technocrats? Alternatively, citizens,
marginalized voters, service users, managers, politicians? Which roles are played by
accounting in the relationships among such users and stakeholders? Which interests is it
serving? Moreover, how? How can accounting serve, among others, the interests of citizens
and users of public services? Can accounting strengthen their participation, involvement, as
well as the representativeness of decisions and related processes? What are the processes
through which accounting is used and contributes to the democratic functioning of states?
Moreover, more generally, how is accounting contributing to and impacting on democratic
processes and outcomes?
Public sector accounting scholarship can enrich the public value literature. As
accounting scholars interested in publicness, we are in the privileged position to engage in a
dialogue on accounting for public value with policymakers. We are also aware that
accounting can measure public value in abstract terms, but also contribute to making
aspects of public value more visible and to define the boundaries of what public value is or is
not. Accounting can contribute to shaping and be shaped by processes through which
stakeholders decide on what public value should be, and it can impact on and be impacted
by how people conceive of public value. Finally, it can account for how public value is
defined, created, destroyed or decided upon. Thus, in addressing public value critique, Accounting
accounting scholars can provide a basis to make it more “operational,” making public value and the post-
and its distribution in the society visible, while our studies can contribute to shedding new new public
lights on how unequal distribution of power translates into costs and benefits related to the
production of public value. management
4.2 Co-production, hybridity and multiplicity of logic

As a consequence of processes of contracting out, the creation of public policy networks, the
production of “public value” and delivery of public services are increasingly becoming the
results of interactions among service recipients and a network of local, regional and global
public, private and non-profit providers.
These phenomena have been analyzed via several perspectives in the public
administration literature. First, public governance and network literature highlights the
features, antecedents and consequences of public policy networks’ structures and processes,
as well as the roles of actors, and the related governance arrangements (e.g. Pierre and
Peters, 2000; Kickert, 1997, 2003; Osborne, 2006; Klijn, 2003; Klijn and Koppenjan, 2016).
Second, the co-production literature explores citizens’ and stakeholders’ involvement in
services provision, including their participation in planning, designing, managing,
delivering and evaluating public services (e.g. Bovaird, 2005, 2007; Bovaird and Loeffler,
2012). Third, studies on hybridity in the public sector point to the increasing departure from
“pure” forms of governance, organization, practices, delivery of services or professional
roles and identities. Such forms and identities reflect multiple underlying logic and
principles, and a blurring of boundaries, for example, between the public, the private and the
non-profit sector (e.g. Denis et al., 2015, pp. 275-276). Fourth, contributions on agencification
(e.g. Pollitt et al., 2001; Verhoest et al., 2012; Overman and Van Thiel, 2016) have specifically
focused on the creation of semi-autonomous agencies to carry out public tasks.
As a consequence of the changes described above, accounting systems are increasingly
required to support governments in managing, controlling, steering and monitoring the
performance of contracts, partnerships, networks and other hybridized arrangements. They
are also relied upon to ensure citizens’ participation and involvement in the decision,
implementation and evaluation of and about public policies and services.
This poses interesting challenges from an academic perspective, as public services can
provide a rich context to explore. However, less attention has been devoted to accounting systems
in such contexts from a public administration perspective (see Ditillo et al., 2015). Conversely, a
body of literature in accounting has started to look at the public sector to better understand how
hybridization of contexts and logics affects accounting, and, more generally, how accounting is
implicated in processes of hybridization, co-production and contracted out services.
First, studies drawing on functionalist approaches have looked at the antecedents of
control systems in hybridized and contracted out services (e.g. Cristofoli et al., 2010; Ditillo
et al., 2015; Johansson et al., 2016).
Second, drawing on institutional and discursive theories, other studies have looked at a
multiplicity of logics as a source of hybridization, seeking to understand the roles of
accounting in shifting logics and discourses, or in providing a medium among competing
and conflicting logics and discourses. The traditional public administration logic has been
replaced by the NPM logic (e.g. Hyndman et al., 2014; Liguori et al., 2017; Parker, 2012;
Wiesel and Modell, 2014). Alternatively, the professional logic underlying public services
has been described as becoming blended, or as resisting, managerial and market logics (e.g.,
Wiesel et al., 2011; Bracci and Llewellyn, 2012; Currie et al., 2015; Rautiainen and Järvenpää,
2012; Rautiainen et al., 2015).
Third, governmentality perspectives have looked not only at hybrid organizational
forms, structures and systems but also at the related hybrid processes. This has highlighted
AAAJ the dual role of accounting in hybridization processes (Miller et al., 2008, p. 942) “seeking to
make visible and calculable the hybrids that it encounters, while at the same time
hybridizing itself through encounters with a range of other practices and disciplines.”
For instance, Fischer and Ferlie (2013) highlight how hybridization can bring about the
intractable conflict. A Management Accounting Research special issue (Barretta and Busco,
2011) provides a multifaceted account of the roles of accounting technologies in public
networks, including “regulatory hybrids” (Kurunmäki and Miller, 2011), the roles of control
systems (Marques et al., 2011), their possible antecedents (Grafton et al., 2011; Johansson and
Siverbo, 2011), and the interrelationships between different types of controls (Carlsson-Wall
et al., 2011; Cäker and Siverbo, 2011) in networked and inter-organizational contexts where
public services are provided.
A special issue on “Accounting for Public Governance” in the Journal of Qualitative
Research in Accounting and Management highlights that accountability under public
governance is problematic (Grossi and Steccolini, 2014) as consideration of accounting
issues still remains overlooked in addressing public governance arrangements, while in
hybridized environments specifying who is accountable for what and to whom, and why
remains far from straightforward.
The studies mentioned above highlight how inter-disciplinary accounting scholarship
can potentially provide insights into emerging and complex phenomena in the public sector,
while several issues remain unexplored. Interestingly, only a few among them refer
explicitly to the public administration literature (e.g. Bracci and Llewellyn, 2012; Hyndman
et al., 2014; Liguori et al., 2017; Parker, 2012; Wiesel and Modell, 2014), and they reveal a
dearth of attention toward co-production (for an exception, see Bracci and Llewellyn, 2012).
The above considerations suggest that more investigation is needed to answer several
questions, including, among others: How can we measure public performance across
organizational boundaries when public value and services are decided upon and produced
through the joint effort of some individuals and organizations? What is the role of
accounting in co-production efforts? Moreover, in turn, how is accounting co-produced?
Moreover, as hybridization and co-production are often transitory states, unstable and
changing over time, what is the role of the accountability system in the unfolding of such
arrangements? How can a relational view of accounting contribute to their better
understanding? Who is accountable, and for what, in co-production efforts and hybridized
environments? How can accounting contribute to governing complex policy networks and
how, in turn, is public accountability affected by the provision of public services through
complex and unstable networks including private, public and non-profit organizations?
Inter-disciplinary accounting scholars should explore how accounting, budgeting and
performance measurement are implicated in co-production efforts and citizens’
participation. For example, will co-production increase representation and inclusion?
What is the role of participatory budgeting as a democratic form of involvement, especially
in the face of austerity (Ahrens and Ferry, 2015; Aleksandrov et al., 2018)? Which are the
risks and opportunities arising from citizens’ involvement in budgeting and planning
(Barbera et al., 2016)? How and under which conditions can public sector accounting, and
budgeting represent tools at the disposal of the majority of citizens or rather expressions of
elites? What is the role of experts and professionals (and the so-called “technocrats”) in
facilitating democratic processes, but also more generally in influencing them?
There is a need to understand the changing roles of accounting and accountability at a
time when discussion of co-production is paralleled by the emergence of a variety of critical
issues including post-democracies (Crouch, 2004), rising populism, increasing power of
technocratic structures and élites and role of social media in building consensus, the crisis of
democratic states, with while whole groups of citizens feel marginalized and struggle with
mounting inequality. Can accounting play a role in strengthening inclusion, representation,
participation and responsiveness to marginalized citizens? Alternatively, is it a medium Accounting
used to keep and maintain the status quo and strengthen hegemonic positions? These issues and the post-
have become even more relevant in the aftermath of global crises and austerity. new public
management
4.3 Austerity, crises and wicked problems
The global financial crisis has opened a paradigmatic gap, whereby NPM may no longer be
the reference point in the provision of public services (Coen and Roberts, 2012). However,
paradoxically, in many cases, austerity and crises appear to have represented yet a new
opportunity for shrinking the public sector and public services and possibly the conception
of public value (Pollitt, 2016). Indeed, the NPM official rhetoric was much about promoting
the principles of the market, managerialism, results-oriented behavior and an emphasis on
value-for-money. Austerity (particularly in the European Union) appears to have brought
about an evident shift in the content of public sector accountability relationships (Bracci
et al., 2015). This is toward a stronger focus on macro-data such as debt/GDP ratios and
deficit/GDP ratios, debt ceilings, balanced budgets, an emphasis on the state of public
finances at the country level, rather than at an organizational level, and a marginalization of
“non-financial” aspects, such as equity, fairness, social impacts.
The recent crises have attracted more attention from the public administration and
policy literature (e.g. Kickert, 2012; Coen and Roberts, 2012; Cepiku et al., 2016; Raudla et al.,
2015; Barbera et al., 2017) than from public sector accounting scholars (see Bracci et al.,
2015). Only two special issues in accounting journals (Accounting, Auditing and
Accountability Journal, 2015; Financial Accountability and Management, 2016) providing
examples on how, on the contrary, the lenses of accounting and accountability literature can
provide important insights into globally relevant phenomena (e.g. Bracci et al., 2015; Hodges
and Lapsley, 2016).
The present context of austerity poses fresh challenges for both practitioners and
scholars. Studies of how accounting is implicated in austerity highlight that accounting can
be a constraining tool (Van der Kolk et al., 2015), used to feed fear, justify and foist upon
people and governments austerity measures and re-defining sovereign powers of countries
(Lapsley et al., 2015; Heald and Hodges, 2015), re-shaping citizens’ participation (Ahrens and
Ferry, 2015) to justify and make austerity cuts acceptable and more generally a tool used to
monitor the use of shrinking resources (Barbera et al., 2016; Tonkiss, 2016).
As such, accounting appears to have especially been studied as a tool for keeping
public expenditure under control, provide evidence on cuts to be made and justified, or to
ensure consultation of relevant actors to involve them in decisions on services to be
prioritized, discontinued or shrunk. However, as Gallhofer and Haslam (1996, p. 25) point
out, accounting “can challenge current norms, traditions, ways of ‘doing things’ and
expose inequalities, injustices, oppression and exploitation. Through this, accounting can
help engender change, contributing to the building of a more liberated, democratic and
happier society.”
Thus, there may be a need to look more at the emancipatory power of accounting
(Gallhofer and Haslam, 2003; Modell, 2017), at how it can be used to buffer and anticipate the
consequences of austerity and crises. Alternatively, to offer alternative forms of accounting,
including accounting for well-being, happiness, cohesion, inclusion, equality, security, care
for the environment and future generations (Bracci et al., 2015). The recent crises, thus,
represent an opportunity to explore the roles of accounting under difficult times and in
facing wicked problems ( Jacobs and Cuganesan, 2014).
In the light of the above consideration, we may be interested in addressing, among
others, the following questions: What are the roles of accounting under extraordinary
conditions, in the face of shocks and crises? How do such roles emerge and what explains
their evolutions from routine to non-routine conditions? How can accounting “account” for
AAAJ the erosion, creation and accumulation of economic, social, intellectual, environmental
capital and capacities brought about by austerity and crises? How can accounting
contribute to keep track, maintain and develop those organizational capacities and
capabilities that support governments in anticipating and coping with shocks? How can
accounting equip public entities and networks in facing and anticipating the impact of the
unexpected? How can it support and foster creative organizational and policy responses?
How can it contribute to strengthening collaboration, trust, creative thinking, learning,
adaptation and transformation in the face of difficulties (see also Barbera et al., 2015, 2016)?
In short, accounting systems can change and adopt new meanings and roles in the face of
crises and austerity. In turn, they may play a significant role in shaping how crises and
austerity are perceived, interpreted and tackled with, providing organizations with the
relevant capacities, tools and resources to anticipate and cope with unexpected events. More
exploration of these phenomena will be needed as public sector organizations increasingly
become the residual claimant in the face of globally relevant, unexpected and impactful
events, such as the global financial crisis, terrorist attacks, refugee and immigration
emergencies, the eruption of new pandemics, wars or Brexit.
4.4 Performance measurement, control and management

The public administration literature on performance measurement has significantly developed
over the last decades, focusing on several issues, including performance measurement system
design and adoption (Bouckaert, 1993; Ammons, 1996), implementation (De Lancer Julnes and
Holzer, 2001), and use (e.g. Van De Walle and Van Dooren, 2008).
An important field of investigation has been the identification of environmental,
organizational and individual variables which explain performance information use, often
through quantitative analyses (e.g. Melkers and Willoughby, 2005; Ammons and Rivenbark,
2008; Taylor, 2009, 2011; Moynihan and Pandey, 2010; Moynihan et al., 2012a, b; Kroll, 2014,
2015). This focus is consistent with a functionalist view of performance measurement
systems, whereby the use of performance information is seen as a rational (or, as public
administration scholars would define it, “purposeful,” Moynihan, 2009) and neutral means to
improve decision making and, thus, public sector performance (OECD, 1994, 1997; Hatry,
2007). Interestingly, under this functionalist view, the symbolic, legitimizing, social and
political facets of performance measurement (see e.g. Burchell et al., 1980) have been
downplayed, with accounting literature hardly ever being referred to. More generally, while
public administration scholars were developing research into performance measurement
systems, accounting scholars were doing the same, often with different perspectives (see e.g.
Van Helden et al., 2008), and working in parallel, with the very limited exchange. This
became even more evident with the emergence of failures, and unexpected and unwanted
effects of the adoption of performance measurement systems in the public realm.
Studies in public administration have tried to understand how the design, adoption and
use of accounting and performance measurement systems could be further improved in
the expectation that this would translate into better performance (e.g. Bouckaert, 1993;
Ammons, 1996; Melkers and Willoughby, 2005; Ammons and Rivenbark, 2008; Taylor,
2009, 2011; Moynihan and Pandey, 2010; Moynihan et al., 2012a, b; Kroll, 2014, 2015). At
the same time, a parallel body of research in accounting has looked at the quantification
and accountingization phenomena, and the emergence of an “audit society” (e.g. Power,
1997, 2000, 2003; Lapsley, 2009), suggesting that their inspiring values may be at odds
with the traditional political and professional logics underlying public services
(Broadbent and Laughlin, 1998; Broadbent et al., 2001), crowding-out motivation and
service-related activities (Olson et al., 2001; Hood and Peters, 2004), or even strengthening
a compliance mentality (Power, 2003; Hood and Peters, 2004; Lapsley, 2009). This body of
literature has explored the effects of performance management reforms (e.g. Ter Bogt and
Van Helden, 2000; Liguori and Steccolini, 2014; Modell, 2009; Lapsley, 1999, 2009), often Accounting
with a more interpretive and qualitative stance. This has allowed an in-depth reflection and the post-
not only on the possible relationship between performance measurement systems, their new public
antecedents and possible effects but also on the different roles played by such systems in
the public realm. Also, their consequences on peoples’ lives and perceptions, and more management
generally, on the processes underlying and explaining those relationships and effects.
Accounting scholarship may offer a complementary and more nuanced view of the
antecedents and consequences of accounting than that offered by a quantitatively
dominated public administration field, as well as on its roles, uses and performativity (e.g.
Miller and Power, 2013; Vosselman, 2014), especially at a time where a preoccupation with
causality is causing a significant narrowing of the methodological options available in
public administration studies.
These developments suggest that a stronger inter-disciplinary dialogue may be needed
to ensure a richer and comprehensive appraisal of performance management. In turn, this
requires scholars from different backgrounds to be keen on exploring what they can learn
and offer when engaging in a debate and dialogue with colleagues from other disciplines.
This may allow us to address questions, among others, such as the following. Which are
the individual, organizational, psychological and societal impacts and consequences of
performance measurement systems (Humphrey and Miller, 2012)? What are the micro-
processes through which public managers, citizens, politicians and other relevant stakeholders
use performance information and how do they affect decisions? Do different types of
performance information, management control systems and tools affect decisions and policies
differently? Which are the underlying psychological, organizational and societal mechanisms
which can explain their effects? Under which conditions do performance measurement and
management bring about improved performance and public value? What are the
consequences for designing performance measurement systems?
In short, public administration literature on performance management brings renewed
attention on the one hand to the final impacts of performance measurement systems, and on
the other to their behavioral implications at the individual level. Accounting literature, with
its frequent focus on organizations and on the diversity of uses and typologies of
performance measurement tools, can provide the middle ground to link individual choices
and behaviors with organizational practices and ultimately their effects and consequences
at the organizational, policy and societal levels.
5. Conclusions
Public sector accounting may have experienced a golden age under NPM, and this may have
translated into an increasing number of studies being conducted on NPM-related accounting
reforms. However, the emphasis on NPM not only as a context or research but also as a
conceptual lens to study public sector accounting reforms may have contributed to crowd-
out efforts of further theorization and consolidated the insulation of public sector accounting
research from other disciplines.
This paper aimed at providing some reflections on possible future developments for
public sector accounting. In doing so, it suggests that public sector accounting position at
the intersection among disciplines, sectors, professions, interests and powers, as well as the
academia and practice, should be seen as an important strength. As pointed out above,
several claims and proposals have already been advanced about how to better theorize
public sector accounting. Here I suggest that we may also need to give the “public” side of
our research a stronger consideration. In doing so, rather than looking for a new paradigm
to supersede NPM, I propose that reflecting on the “publicness” in our research as a
“concept,” and a way to abstract from looking at the public sector as a “context” may allow
us to take a wider perspective. Accounting scholars may need to look at how accounting and
AAAJ accountability can respond to the challenges posed by a shifting and increasingly intangible
publicness, whereby accounting provides the processes and operational ways in which the
public interest and public value are decided upon, planned, accounted for in an abstract
public space. This can be captured by reflecting on the extent to which certain public
dimensions and features will influence, and, in turn, be affected by accounting and
accountability systems, and thinking more about the general lessons that can be learned by
looking at these specific phenomena. There are some current trends in public administration
studies which may provide stimuli to, but also benefit from, accounting scholarship, and
where accounting scholarship remains surprisingly under-represented or ignored by
scholars in other disciplines, including public value, performance management,
austerity, crises and wicked problems, and co-production and hybridity. These
developments may represent rich opportunities to strengthen our knowledge of public
sector accounting at work, our understanding of how accounting is implicated in democratic
(or in anti- and post-democratic) life, but also strengthen our theorization efforts as well as
our impact on public policies and society.
A concluding remark needs to be made about the predominance of studies that have
shown the unexpected and unwanted effects of public sector accounting under NPM (e.g.
Cuganesan et al., 2014). In the future, there may be a need to pay stronger attention to
accounting roles in reflecting and building trust, democracy, collaboration, confidence,
well-being, participation, inclusiveness, fairness, public value and (possibly) happiness[7].
Acknowledgment
This paper is based on the author’s plenary presentation at the 8th APIRA conference at
RMIT, Melbourne, in July 2016. The author is grateful to Garrie Carnegie, Lee Parker and
James Guthrie for their encouragement in writing this paper. The author also indebted to
Eugenio Anessi Pessina, Carmen Barbera, Enrico Guarini, Noel Hyndman, Martin Jones,
Sanja Korac, Irvine Lapsley, Mariannunziata Liguori, Jim Perry, Iris Saliterer,
MariaFrancesca Sicilia, who have all being precious sources of inspiration of these
reflections. The author would like in particular to thank Enrico Bracci, James Guthrie, Jim
Haslam, Chris Humphrey, Stewart Smyth and Jan Van Helden and the anonymous
reviewers for their insightful revisions and comments on previous versions of this paper.
Any errors remain of the author.
Notes
1. The use of the expression “golden age” does not imply any evaluation about the quality of research
in that period, but rather refers to the flourishing of such research.
2. As pointed out by one of the reviewers, to whom I am indebted, referring to NPM as conceptual
lens may have provided an “easy way to theorize the narrative of public sector accounting.”
3. I am indebted to Chris Humphrey for inviting me to reinforce the idea that a majority of public sector
accounting research has been and still remains virtually ignored by policymakers, practitioners, as
well as scholars from other disciplines, and governments’ consultants and advisors.
4. I am grateful to Jan Van Helden, who encouraged me to make these thoughts (hopefully) more
explicit, and to Jim Haslam, who advised me to be more nuanced.
5. There are exemplary cases of scholarly engagement with public policy, such as the cases of Jane
Broadbent, James Guthrie, David Heald, Lee Parker or Andrew Likierman.
6. I am fully indebted to one of the reviewers for this insightful fourth point.
7. I like to add here the reviewer’s comment about the need to redress “the societal expectation that
accounting is a mechanistic, reliable technology that will faithfully support reforms in the public
sector,” with which I fully agree.
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from Allen Schick”, Public Administration Review, Vol. 70 No. 2, pp. 203-210.
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Schick, A. (2004), “Twenty-five years of budgeting reform”, OECD Journal on Budgeting, Vol. 4 No. 1,
pp. 81-102.
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a literature review”, Critical Perspectives on Accounting, Vol. 41 No. 1, pp. 34-62.
Wildavsky, A. (1992), “Political implications of budget reform: a retrospective”, Public Administration
Review, Vol. 52 No. 6, pp. 594-599.
Corresponding author
Ileana Steccolini can be contacted at: ileana.steccolini@newcastle.ac.uk
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